By early May, we were in a stable financial position and our café was ready to open even stronger and better than before. Additionally, we worked extremely hard securing emergency funding from the SBA, PPP & GoFundMe in order to stay afloat with no revenue. With our new found “off” time, we were able to successfully redesign, enhance, and improve the current mobile café while also installing and testing all of our new equipment. However, as any business owner will tell you, it will do you even more harm to sit around and mourn the unfavorable situation you are now in. To most, this would seem like a pretty bad place to be in-a lot of money spent, no revenue coming in and no clear future path. As the virus continued to spread, it became clear that our big six-month engagement was no longer a real possibility. We made the incredibly tough decision to close the business in March in order to do our part in slowing the virus. With that in mind, we went forward with nearly $30,000 in capital expenses in February! As we all now know, that worst-case scenario known as COVID-19 was on its way. If we had waited, there was a real potential we would not be able to get everything working in time for the gig in May and then we would lose not only revenue but customer confidence. The other risk we weighed was if we had waited until early April to make the investment. Rather, we would simply be speeding up our timeline for the necessary improvements to grow our business regardless of the 6-month gig. This was definitely a concern, but we ultimately made the investments as we did not see the downside as a true loss. There was a major risk though if we made the required investments in February to meet the demand in May, we could be left high and dry if something happened and our 6-month gig was canceled. We needed to make these investments by the end of February in order to make sure we could meet our new demand come May.

This would include major adjustments to the set-up of the café including the purchase of a more powerful espresso machine & generator. We had a few fulltime new hires on the way and we had a huge 6-month gig starting up in May that would require some enormous capital expenditures.

In February of 2020, our mobile café business was booming. One of the largest risks I ever took was changing my career from a successful CPA to starting a mobile coffee shop! However, I think this is a great opportunity to discuss one of the biggest risks our business took recently. Not achieving my initial goal allows for new opportunities and forces me to rethink the problem I am facing and ultimately become more successful. For example, when I take a risk and I fail at my ultimate goal, this is not simply a failure but rather, it is an essential part of my personal and business growth cycle. What allowed me to begin taking more risks and end-up where I am today was by changing the way I approach these possible adverse outcomes. It is this 50/50, black and white mentality that causes so many people to ultimately become risk-averse. To most, it would seem obvious that taking a risk always ends in one of two outcomes- failure or success. I have certainly never been a stranger to taking risks as I learned early on that the true risk in life is not taking any risks at all! Without taking risks, my growth would be limited, and my life would be much less fulfilling than it currently is! That’s not to say that I blindly take all risks and ignore the consequences or underestimate the potential downside. I view risk as one of the most fundamental elements needed to achieve progress, knowledge and a successful life and career.

Hi Taylor, what role has risk played in your life or career? We had the good fortune of connecting with Taylor Fields and we’ve shared our conversation below.

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